


Immortality

by TururaJ



Series: Superpower Cycle [3]
Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Established Relationship, Just a drabble, M/M, Post-Finale, kind of Age Gap, superpower warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25560115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TururaJ/pseuds/TururaJ
Summary: For some Aldnoah is a blessing; for others it’s a curse.
Relationships: Kaizuka Inaho/Slaine Troyard
Series: Superpower Cycle [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802818
Comments: 12
Kudos: 58





	Immortality

**Author's Note:**

  * For [1300](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1300/gifts).



> I'm happy to say this is shitty. In my mind everything ends well and Slaine is happy as hell when he finally gets gray hair but you are free to see it the way you like.  
> Vennie, I have no excuses! *bows*

The trees submit to the powerful wind and bend low. Inaho can feel the fury of the approaching storm as the next gust hits the side of the car. He takes the keys out of the ignition and stills, his gaze stuck at the rear view mirror. He doesn’t mind the storm outside; the storm that is waiting for him behind the closed door of the cottage house is way more alarming.

It’s been another three empty months of continuous struggle, he thinks, the desire to clench his fists until his nails dig blood is too strong. He feels like he had been so close this time but the goal had been snatched away once again by the unyielding science. Three months. Plus twenty years of searching for a ray of hope. The mirror bears no pity as it shows him the truth: he has gray hair, thin cheekbones, the scars around his analytical engine are deeper than before. His youth is gone, scared away by years of harsh and exhausting studies. He is not an old man yet but he can see he is going to age earlier than a statistically average person.

Time is an issue. Twenty years is a deadline. Now the deadline has passed and, regrettably, he is still in the dark.

He blinks, adjusts his eye-patch, hoping the slight headache he has won’t turn into a migraine, and gets out of the car. The rain hasn’t reached the cottage yet so he hurries under the safety of the porch and chooses another key on the set he always carriers. There is light in the hall, and chills run down his spine. It is the middle of the night but he is expected. He doesn’t know if it makes him happy or apprehensive. Probably, both.

As he enters the living room and meets Slaine Troyard’s glare he feels like excessive air clogs his throat and chest. Usually three months of separation is a long period for lovers. He had been away for more, it is a fact. But for Troyard these three precious months must feel like a pit of lost opportunities. And he is at fault, again. In his hopeless quest to secure a happy future for them both he hurts Slaine like no other.

Slaine is silent as he crosses the living room and lowers near him on the couch, too focused at the moment to take off his black trench coat. They share no words. Slowly, minutes tickle away. Slaine holds a pen in his long fingers; he plays with it as he looks nowhere. He has been writing a lot of stories lately as a way to cope with stress, Inaho knows. And they sell splendidly. Too bad the world cannot ever discover his real identity; all they will ever have is his pseudonym. Unless aeons pass. But Inaho doesn’t want to think of a future where Slaine is left unattended. No, he will spend his life to prevent that. 

Slaine’s shoulders are hunched and Inaho wants to embrace him but when he reaches out with his hand Slaine noticeably flinches. He has no choice but to retreat; he folds his hands into a lock over his knees and waits. In the past he had been arrogant enough to begin conversations; now he knows better. Apologies and reasoning are never enough. He _is_ guilty.

Thankfully, Slaine doesn’t need to hear about the results of what he has been doing during his absence. He is perfectly aware that if there were good news he’d already tell them. Instead, Slaine asks, his voice a flawless example of controlled anger, “Are you going to steal our time again?”

“Yes. In a month I’m flying to Mars for the Aldnoah Assembly. We will discuss your case once again; some of the scientists have sent me messages they have new ideas.” He had never been dishonest and he doesn’t want to start now. He will leave soon; this time he can stay only for a month. 

“Fuck you,” Slaine growls. The plastic pen breaks into two halves and is thrown away to the floor. “When you are gone, and all I’ll be left with are memories of your absence, you think, I’ll be happy?”

“No, you won’t be. But before I die I want to make sure you live a proper human life and have a proper end. If I need to sacrifice our relationship for that sake then so be it.”

“Fuck you!” Slaine repeats. He jumps away from the couch as if he is burned, forever scorched by Inaho’s frankness.

“Slaine, don’t be a child. You only look like you’re eighteen; we both know you’re forty.” Inaho ignores the pain in his chest and catches Slaine’s wrist. Their eyes meet for the first time after meeting. Inaho loves his eyes, even though Slaine’s look makes him feel like he is in the center of the stormy sea. “Listen to me. Once I find a solution you will have another chance at life. You might find someone you will be happy with, make a family, have children. I want that for you.”

“You are my family. I don’t want others,” Slaine says with trembling lips and gets so pale Inaho cannot control himself anymore. He stands up and pulls Slaine to him, cheats by using force of his grown up body. He rarely does that but he is glad this time Slaine doesn’t resist. Perhaps, he is drained too. They’ve been arguing long before this day, always walked on thin ice, close to a final breakup none of them really want.

“There’s still time,” Inaho tells him wishing he could absorb all the shaking from Slaine’s sharp limbs. He realizes Slaine is terrified of losing him, that the future where he has no death - not from illness or wounds or old age – is too heavy of a cross. “Our bodies are only twenty years apart. If I find a way to fix the situation soon we can still be happy together.”

Slaine doesn’t answer anything back. He keeps his head low but Inaho suddenly feels as his trench coat is pulled down his shoulders. Slaine unhurriedly slides his hands over his arms and chest. Inaho instantly feels hot. 

It’s been a year since the last time they had sex; and even before, for the whole decade, they’ve had too many issues. And he wants sex; he wants it so desperately his whole body aches. Maybe sex is too cold a word for what he truly desires. He knows Slaine would choose a different word: intimacy, closeness, unity. But he doesn’t care what to call it. He wants to feel whole again.

“I hate this,” Slaine utters, pressing his forehead against his chest. “I hate that you’re taller and that you have this fricking muscles. I hate that I cannot have gray hair. I hate that I feel as a teenage virgin when you let me have control. I hate this, Inaho.”

“I understand.” He does. It is why they rarely are close now. Personally, he doesn’t care that Slaine looks like an eighteen year old; in his heart he knows he’ll want him in any form, with any flaws and deficiencies. But Slaine is different. Slaine had never had much of self-worth to begin with. And Inaho has to respect that.

“Will you at least let me spend the night by your side?” he begs as Slaine steps away, ready to leave him alone in the middle of the chilly living room.

“Silly,” Slaine smiles. A sad bitter smile makes his face so much more beautiful Inaho’s lips are tingling with the desire to kiss him. Slaine grabs his belt, wraps his fingers around the buckle and pulls him closer, indicating for him to follow. “Come, you look so tired.”

For some Aldnoah is a blessing; for others it’s a curse.

For Slaine Troyard it became a punishment as he fell to Earth and the malfunctioning Aldnoah of Tharsis’ core had robbed him of his mortality.

But for now - Inaho thinks as he climbs into the bed and finally receives a chance to hug Slaine’s thin body - for now hope isn’t lost. He will give his all to find a solution, a cure - anything. He will make them both happy.

Outside the wind dies down; the storm is passing miles away.


End file.
